The Akron Symphony Orchestra plays in historic Glendale Cemetery at 7:30 p.m. It’s free; bring a lawn chair. The cemetery is at 150 Glendale Ave., Akron. The performance will feature the debut of the orchestra’s new assistant conductor Jacob Sustaita, who recently completed a monthlong tour of China as the assistant conductor of the National Youth Orchestra. At 6 p.m., the Percussion Department from the University of Akron will conduct the “Rhythm Experience,” a Knight Foundation-funded project led by ASO and University of Akron percussionists Larry Snider and Matt Dudack. Kids of all ages make instruments that they will use in performance during the second half of the symphony program.

See Rickie Lee Jones at Kent Stage

The Kent Stage hosts Rickie Lee Jones at 8 p.m. Her latest CD is The Other Side of Desire, inspired by her move to New Orleans. Tickets are $38 at 330-677-5005, www.thekentstage.com.

]]>1.612773Sun, 2 Aug 2015 03:27:37 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/bobby-brown-family-mourn-the-late-bobbi-kristina-at-funeral-1.612764?localLinksEnabled=false
ALPHARETTA, GA.: R&B singer Bobby Brown emerged from the funeral of his daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, staring toward the ground before lifting his head up and briefly gazing at the sky.

Dressed in all black, the grieving Brown was one of the first to exit the tension-filled private service for Bobbi Kristina on Saturday at the St. James United Methodist Church in Alpharetta, just north of Atlanta. Twenty-two-year-old Bobbi Kristina was the only child between Brown and the late megastar singer Whitney Houston.

Bobbi Kristina died in hospice care July 26, about six months after she was found face-down and unresponsive in a bathtub at her townhome.

Several celebrities showed up for the funeral including filmmaker Tyler Perry, Grammy-winning R&B singer Monica and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.

In the middle of the service Bobby Brown’s sister Leolah Brown walked out of the church and spoke to reporters gathered outside. She said she was angry because Pat Houston was speaking at the funeral. Pat Houston is the sister-in-law and former manager for the late Whitney Houston.

“I told her that Whitney is going to haunt her from the grave,” Leolah Brown told reporters outside the church.

She suggested that the feud between the Houstons and the Browns was far from over.

“It’s just getting started,” she said before going back inside the church.

An email to the Houston family rep was not returned.

For years, there’s been a longstanding rift between the families of the young woman’s famous mother and father. Bobby Brown briefly appeared at Houston’s funeral three years ago, saying he and his children were seated but asked repeatedly to move. Brown said he left because he didn’t want to create a scene, but was upset.

Bobbi Kristina’s death was grimly similar to the way her mother had died three years earlier.

Houston’s assistant found the singer’s lifeless body face-down in a foot of water in her bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel just before the Grammy Awards in 2012. Authorities found prescription drugs in the suite, and evidence of heart disease and cocaine in her body, but determined her death was an accidental drowning.

Bobbi Kristina was found in the townhome she shared with Nick Gordon, an orphan three years older, whom Houston had raised as her own. Bobbi Kristina referred to him as her husband. A police report earlier this year described the incident as a drowning, and authorities are investigating her death.

Relations between Gordon and other relatives have soured over the past few years, especially after Bobbi Kristina was hospitalized. A protective order barred him from being within 200 feet of Pat Houston. And a feud erupted over whether Gordon could visit Bobbi Kristina while she stayed in the hospital.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said he and his office are interested in reviewing the investigative file to determine whether any charges will be filed.

Leolah Brown said she believes Gordon was involved in the death of her niece.

Lawyers for Gordon declined to comment.

Bobbi Kristina was raised in the shadow of her famous parents’ hugely public life.

She appeared alongside the couple in 2005 on the Bravo reality show “Being Bobby Brown,” which showed her parents fighting, swearing and making court appearances. She attended award shows with her mother and father, walked red carpets with them and sang in Central Park with Houston as adoring fans watched.

Houston and Brown were married 15 years. Their tumultuous relationship ended in 2007.

On Saturday, she was remembered in a private service. A hearse carrying Bobbi Kristina arrived nearly three hours ahead of the service. Four men dressed in black suits carried the coffin into the church.

Eight police motorcycles escorted three stretch limousines, carrying mourners to the church in Alpharetta ahead of the service. A procession of dozens of cars followed.

Security was heavy outside the church. About 75 members of the media stood behind a barricade at the entrance of the church parking lot, while more than two dozen onlookers were just a few feet behind them.

Alpharetta police say they were assisted by more than a dozen state troopers to manage traffic and shut down lanes to accommodate parking around the church where the service was being held.

Bobbi Kristina was the sole heir of her mother’s estate. She identified herself on Twitter as “Daughter of Queen WH,” ‘’Entertainer/Actress” with William Morris & Co., and “LAST of a dying breed.”

She told Oprah Winfrey shortly after her mother’s death in 2012 that she wanted to carry on Houston’s legacy by singing, acting and dancing. But her career never took off.

In her short life, Bobbi Kristina became a social media sensation, sending more than 11,000 tweets and attracting 164,000 followers.

]]>1.612764Sun, 2 Aug 2015 02:31:07 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/rich-heldenfels/heldenfiles-welcome-to-ohio-land-of-10-000-stereotypes-1.612720?localLinksEnabled=false
I am a longtime fan of Maureen Ryan, the television critic for the Huffington Post. But I wish she spent more time in Ohio.

Ryan recently wrote a well-thought-out column about Trevor Noah, the comedian who will succeed Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show in September. In that column, Ryan observed that a stand-up performance by Noah “was littered with extremely relatable elements; it was aimed directly and resolutely at the heart of the mainstream. … The set didn’t ignore the unfortunate racial realities of modern America, but it would have gone over just fine at a Giggle Shack anywhere in Ohio.”

What irked me — and some friends I shared the column with — was the implication that Ohio is some kind of Hicksville. That being in “the heart of the mainstream” was tantamount to being placid and edge-free.

That this politically powerful swing state was, as a reporter not from here once said, “a rural place.”

To talk the way some people think Ohioans do, I am gosh-darn tired of the stereotyping.

When it comes to, say, cartoonists, such observers think Ohio is the home of Milton Caniff (Steve Canyon, Terry and the Pirates) when it also claims Derf (My Friend Dahmer, Punk Rock & Trailer Parks).

In comedy, we are known for Tim Conway — but also for Katt Williams.

Before he was host of Family Feud, Steve Harvey was one of The Kings of Comedy. Our Drew Carey may host The Price Is Right, but he is also an outspoken libertarian and the author of Dirty Jokes and Beer.

Ryan’s remark would not have stung so much if it had not been for other slights against Ohio in mass media over the years. Yes, residents of plenty of other places could make the same complaint. Why, for example, is Iowa always treated as rural and conservative when it is home to one of the nation’s great newspapers, the Des Moines Register, and its fine columnist Rekha Basu?

But we’re in Ohio, so that’s where I focus my beef. It can include things as simple as misunderstanding geography. The Chris Farley comedy Tommy Boy has an airplane flight from Sandusky to Cuyahoga Falls, with a stopover in Columbus, no less. Glee, set in Lima, mentioned a school “down in Akron.”

Too often there’s a blatant misrepresentation of people and places. Dance Moms, as one reader pointed out awhile back, includes Candy Apple’s Dance Center in Canton. It’s near Belden Village Mall. But when Dance Moms got near it, footage would include cows, horses and sometimes a barn.

Another reader noticed that when the Kent State men’s basketball team went to the NCAA Elite Eight, a national telecast “showed film of the bus rolling through cornfields.

“I’m still not sure I know where they were,” she said.

Now, there have been times when Northeast Ohio was treated better. The Drew Carey Show was not only set in Cleveland — a major city whose existence appears to have been missed by some — but also was often a love letter to the city’s cultural variety. Nor was 3rd Rock From the Sun, set at a fictional Ohio university inspired by Kent State, full of hayseeds taking courses on crop rotation.

This is not to say that Ohio should only be celebrated. Not amid reports of the Ohio State marching band’s secret songbook. Certainly not with the scorched earth being created by the University of Akron administration.

But Ohio is a richer, more diverse place than outsiders acknowledge. And the only Giggle Shack I know of is a store in Georgia.

Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal, Ohio.com, Facebook, Twitter and the HeldenFiles Online blog. You can contact him at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.

Richard Thompson plays the Kent Stage at 8 p.m. His latest studio album is Still, produced by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. Tickets are $30, $40 Gold Circle, at 330-677-5005, www.thekentstage.com.

Eat pancakes, watch parade at Bath

The 18th annual Bath Community Day will start with a pancake breakfast at the Bath Church, 3980 W. Bath Road, from 7 to 11 a.m., followed by a parade on North Cleveland-Massillon Road, and from noon to 4 p.m. there will be exhibits, music, food, contests, games and activities at Bath Community Activity Center, 1615 N. Cleveland-Massillon Road. Check out the craft tent, water ball fights, food trucks, Bath’s Best Pooch contest and music by Swizzle Stick.

]]>1.612618Sat, 1 Aug 2015 02:47:00 +0000http://www.ohio.com/news/nation/lynn-anderson-singer-of-rose-garden-dies-in-nashville-1.612588?localLinksEnabled=false
NASHVILLE, Tenn.: Lynn Anderson, whose strong, husky voice carried her to the top of the charts with (I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden, has died. She was 67.

A statement from the family said she passed away at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday. Her publicist said the cause of death was cardiac arrest.

Anderson first soaked up the national spotlight as a young singer on The Lawrence Welk Show between 1967 and 1969. Although she was signed to an independent label, the exposure helped her nab a deal with Columbia Records in Nashville.

It was 1970s Rose Garden that sealed her country music legacy, earning her a Grammy and Country Music Association’s female vocalist of the year award in 1971.

She made television appearances with such stars as Lucille Ball, Bing Crosby, John Wayne and Tom Jones and she performed for presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan.

She was also in episodes of the TV show Starsky and Hutch and in the 1982 TV movie Country Gold.

Anderson’s other hits included, Rocky Top, You’re My Man, How Can I Unlove You, What a Man, My Man Is and Top of the World (also recorded by the Carpenters).

She returned briefly to the country Top 10 with a Gary Morris duet in 1983, You’re Welcome to Tonight.

]]>1.612588Sat, 1 Aug 2015 02:20:26 +0000http://www.ohio.com/news/nation/wwe-hall-of-famer-roddy-piper-dies-at-61-1.612590?localLinksEnabled=false
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper, the kilt wearing trash talker who headlined the first WrestleMania and later found movie stardom, has died, the WWE said Friday. He was 61. WWE had no additional details.

Piper, born Roderick Toombs, was the second WWE hall of famer to die this summer following the June death of Dusty Rhodes.

Piper and Hulk Hogan battled for years and headlined some of the biggest matches during the 1980s. Hogan and Mr. T defeated Piper and Paul Orndorff on March 31, 1985, at the first WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden.

Piper was a villain for the early portion of his career, once cracking a coconut over the skull of Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. He later starred in John Carpenter’s 1988 cult classic They Live.

Piper also went by the nickname “Hot Rod” during his career. Although he was Canadian, he often appeared in a kilt and came to the ring blowing bagpipes in a nod to his Scottish heritage.

Piper was best known for his lengthy career with the World Wrestling Federation, now the WWE. He had more than 30 titles to his name and was inducted into the company’s hall of fame in 1985.

Wilco released Star Wars as a surprise free download just because the musicians thought it would be fun, according to the band’s leader Jeff Tweedy. It’s their first record in four years (and their ninth studio album in two decades).

Star Wars itself sounds surprising: It’s harsh, focused, and abrasive, a brief record of short, mostly noisy songs, 11 tracks in 34 minutes, six of them less than three.

The instrumental EKG opens the album with a brief blast of Sonic Youth-like dissonant, choppy guitar chords. In the past, Tweedy and fellow guitarist Nels Cline have often taken Wilco songs off the rails into unhinged jams, and those journeys can be cathartic. This time, they start noisy and stay there. This is not a bad thing: The Joke Explained is densely layered with squealing guitars, but it still rocks, and Tweedy sounds like he’s having fun doing his best Highway 61 Dylan impression.

Star Wars is an anxious, unsettling album — lyrically as well as musically — but it also bristles with energy.

— Steve Klinge

Philadelphia Inquirer

Badlands

C.J. Box

The new Wild West, in which a hamlet becomes a boomtown because of its oil-rich fields, makes a sturdy background for C.J. Box’s intriguing novel.

Taking another break from his best-selling series about Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett, Box delivers an enthralling thriller in Badlands, the story of a once-quiet area unprepared for its rapid growth.

Cassandra “Cassie” Dewell, last seen in Box’s terrifying The Highway, arrives in this new frontier anxious to start as chief investigator for Jon Kirkbride, sheriff of Bakken County. But the progress that assures Cassie her new high-paying job comes with problems.

A few years ago, Grimstad was an economically depressed North Dakota town “dying a slow death,” its most notable feature the below-zero winters. But a burgeoning oil industry has brought in a few thousand workers, who have too much money and idle time. Grimstad’s unbridled population growth also means that crime and the drug trade are out of control. The town’s infrastructure from housing to restaurants to law enforcement is woefully unprepared.

As Cassie looks into murders related to rival gangs and corruption within the sheriff’s department, 12-year-old Kyle Westergaard, a special-needs child who lives with his alcoholic mother and her low-life boyfriend, finds a duffel bag filled with drugs and money after he witnesses a fatal car accident. The balance between Kyle’s emotional story and Cassie’s perceptive detective work adds heft to the novel.

The author’s strength in creating well-rounded characters shaped by their environs and their own moral codes shines in Badlands.

Box will appear Thursday at the Cuyahoga County Public Library’s Parma-Snow branch. See the Book Talk column on this page for details.

— Oline H. Cogdill

Associated Press

The Blade

Ashley Monroe

Ashley Monroe, a member of the Pistol Annies with Miranda Lambert and Angaleena Presley, continues to prove herself as a top young country artist with her third album, The Blade.

Good, traditional country ballads are rare these days, but The Blade features several, including the poignant title cut and the mournful breakup diatribe If the Devil Don’t Want Me.

Monroe balances the pain with plenty of playful romps. Winning Streak mischievously suggests that when it comes to losing, the song’s subject is on a roll. Similarly, I Buried Your Love Alive rocks to a wicked, bluesy vamp.

Monroe is an artfully subtle singer. The tone of her voice is reminiscent of a fellow East Tennessee native, Dolly Parton and Monroe uses it with restrained beauty, and she knows just when to turn up the heat or heartbreak. She works again with co-producers Vince Gill and Justin Niebank, who match her emotional understatement with some exquisite steel guitar and hot electric guitar work.

Monroe’s 2013 album topped several critics’ lists as the best country album of the year. Watch for The Blade to appear near the top of the same lists again in 2015.

Whether you’re an expert birder or you can’t tell a robin from a wren, you can join in the Guided Bird Walk on Saturday morning at Secrest Arboretum in Wooster Township.

Members of the Greater Mohican Audubon Society will guide bird lovers through the arboretum, helping them to spot birds, learn their calls and discover their habitats.

The free event starts at 9 a.m. at the arboretum’s Seaman Orientation Plaza. Be sure to dress for the weather.

Secrest Arboretum is on the campus of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Ave. Directions and a campus map are at http://secrest.osu.edu.

Dive into some TV

Olympic champion Greg Louganis’ career and life are covered in Back on Board, a documentary premiering at 10 p.m. Tuesday on HBO.

The film, which was also shown at the Cleveland International Film Festival in March, looks at his sporting triumphs, his coming out and even his financial struggles in recent years.

“Greg’s story is connected to so many important moments in American history, including the Olympics, the AIDS epidemic, the gay rights movement and even the recent home-foreclosure crisis,” writer-producer Will Sweeney said in a prepared statement. “Greg’s return to diving to mentor the Olympic team [in 2012] gave us a natural way to tell his unique story and explore his enduring legacy.”

Watch ‘Insurgent’ on DVD Tuesday

Insurgent, the second film in the series based on the Divergent books, arrives on DVD and Blu-ray (including a 3-D version) Tuesday. Reviews were poor for the film starring Shailene Woodley; it has a 30 percent positive score on Rotten Tomatoes, lower than the first movie, Divergent. But it still proved to be a box-office success, taking in close to $300 million worldwide.

Take in Bombino at the Beachland

At 8:30 p.m. Sunday at the Beachland Ballroom, singer/songwriter/guitarist Goumour Almoctar, better known as Omara Moctar, and even better known simply as Bombino, will perform the trance-inducing, guitar-driven sounds of his native, nomadic Tuareg tribe of Niger.

Bombino’s critically acclaimed 2013 album Nomad was produced by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach (who went on to win the Grammy for producer of the year). Opening for Bombino will be Akron’s own Extra Spooky.

]]>1.612472Fri, 31 Jul 2015 20:57:36 +0000http://www.ohio.com/news/politics/jon-stewart-a-serious-student-of-absurdity-ends-his-run-1.612468?localLinksEnabled=false
When Jon Stewart made a now-iconic appearance on CNN’s Crossfire in 2004, co-host Tucker Carlson listened to Stewart for a time and lamented, “I thought you were going to be funny. … Be funny.”

Of course, people expect Stewart to be funny most of the time. Before joining The Daily Show, where his run ends on Thursday, Stewart was known mainly as a comedian and sometime comic actor. He sometimes puts a highly comic spin on his interviews, as when he asked LeBron James if he was from another planet.

It was in no small part Stewart’s humor that had thousands of people trying to get tickets to four Daily Show tapings at Ohio State in 2006, and that had some of the ticket-getters standing in the rain for the chance to see him. But there was much more to it.

Even when going for laughs, Stewart is a very serious person. But both his seriousness and his humor were served by what he considered the absurd elements of modern politics and culture.

It’s easy to compare Stewart to satirists such as Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift. But it’s just as reasonable to compare him to Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly and Rachel Maddow — commentators with clear political points of view — only with more jokes. (And a lot better ones.)

That Crossfire included his excoriation of the show for its approach to political discussion, and it is often on lists of Stewart’s greatest moments. So are his emotional post-9/11 monologue and his vigorous battling with financial tout Jim Cramer over how he failed to warn investors about the 2008 financial collapse. He wrote and directed his first feature film, Rosewater, about a journalist accused by Iran of being a spy, who was imprisoned and tortured for five months.

In the Cramer interview, Stewart indicated that he would rather just be funny — that Cramer and his colleagues should “start getting back to fundamentals on the reporting … I can go back to making fart noises and funny faces.” But while Stewart has not quelled the funny impulse — he responded to Mike Huckabee’s comments not long ago with only grunting noises and funny faces — neither has he stopped being serious when the news of the day is just too nuts to ignore.

And the news gives him plenty of nuttiness. One reason that he made Rosewater was that the Iranians used a satirical piece on The Daily Show as proof that the journalist was a spy. Last week, he mocked the Obama administration combatting the social-media-savvy Islamic State with paper leaflets.

Down with McKinley

Then there’s the mountain in Alaska named for a president who never went there.

That piece involved attempts to change Mount McKinley, named after the former president and Ohioan William McKinley, to Denali, the name many Alaskans use for it. The Daily Show detailed the lack of a real connection between Alaska and McKinley, and even had a local historian admitting that McKinley was just an average president.

While Stewart himself did not report the segment, it certainly felt Stewart-inspired, said Kimberly Kenney, curator of the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum in Canton (who took a lot of local heat for her assessment of McKinley). There was plenty of seriousness in the way the show approached the segment: they had 50 questions for Kenney, “all rooted in the details of the [name] debate.”

“Although the show might appear flip and funny on the surface,” Kenney said, “there is a great deal of preparation and research that goes on behind-the-scenes.”

Stewart, after all, wants to get it right. That has made him influential in politics. The Politico website, for example, discovered that Stewart made two quiet visits to the Obama White House, and it was clear they weren’t just for tea and cookies.

Those visits also underscore his liberal leanings, which are unabashedly public. He has been criticized at times for going easy on politicians he likes, at least when they are guests on his show. (He can also get soft with some celebrities, including Tom Cruise during his appearance last week.) At the same time, when he sees absurdity in his political friends, he points it out.

As I said before, he’s a political commentator. Just the way he can sometimes flop as a humorist, as a commentator he can also err. In a July interview with Marc Maron, former Daily Show writer Wyatt Cenac recalled arguing that Stewart had been racially insensitive in an imitation of African-American presidential candidate Herman Cain. Stewart was reportedly angry and defensive at the time.

“I would never say that we were perfect or without fault on any of that stuff,” Daily Show executive producer Steve Bodow told the New York Times in the wake of the Cenac interview. “And the incident with Wyatt was a real reminder of that.”

The other thing to be reminded of is that Stewart for 16 years has used a “fake news” format as a platform for a lot of discussions of real, serious news. And he has for the most part done it while being really funny.

Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal, Ohio.com, Facebook, Twitter and the HeldenFiles Online blog. You can contact him at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.

]]>1.612468Fri, 31 Jul 2015 20:54:15 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/arts/art-review-innovative-works-by-two-contemporary-artists-at-cleveland-museum-of-art-1.612462?localLinksEnabled=false
Those of us who love the arts often find ourselves sitting in or wandering through venues to see a play, listen to music, or for an exhibition of visual art. We have come to what is an often iconic place or institution to have an experience that will help to keep our minds active, and to get a glimpse of talent or a view of the world other than our own.

Most call this entertainment, but that seems to be a bit of an oversimplification.

Here is the ground floor of the relationship we as a viewer/patron have with the institution we have come to visit. What is the view from the museum’s side of things? What does a curator actually do?

Most of us come into a gallery or museum setting and either like what we are looking at or don’t. We then move along to the next thing. Yes, it’s usually that fast and simple. However, if you take the time to engage with what is being presented and to dig a little deeper for understanding, you often can gain an insight into not only the artist’s process, but also into what the curator was thinking about when putting the exhibit together.

Gloria: Robert Rauschenberg & Rachel Harrison, on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art, is an exhibit I encourage you to take the time to engage with. It’s an exciting “juxtaposition of two unconventional thinkers.” It’s also a glimpse at Rauschenberg that however small, still helps to solidify his influence over the last nearly 70 years.

The title of this show takes its name from one of the three Combine works by Rauschenberg that have been included in the exhibit. Gloria is part the museum’s collection, a tour de force of Rauschenberg’s innovative style, especially for the mid-1950s when it was made.

The work includes pieces of everyday objects from the artist’s studio: newspaper, fabric, oil paint, staples and perhaps remnants of previously adhered objects. It’s got a cut-out rectangle smack dab in the middle that invites us to look into the work or perhaps behind it. Jasper Johns, a friend of Rauschenberg’s, coined the term Combine for these works, stating that they are “painting playing the game of sculpture.”

The same can be said of the two photographic pieces of Rauschenberg’s also included in the exhibit. In many ways, these offer just as much of a glimpse into how the artist was thinking, in that they are images of different objects that have been combined to form a new work. In one case, layers of imagery have been exposed over the other to bring forth an image that harkens to much of the work we know this artist for. These images also provide a look at a beautiful skill level and dare I say craftsmanship that Rauschenberg is not often credited for.

For the most part, the works by Rachel Harrison are three-dimensional sculptures. However, there are a few drawings included. One is a drawing of Willem de Kooning’s Woman V next to the late singer Amy Winehouse. Here we see Harrison bringing back one of de Kooning’s women, very like one of the women Rauschenberg famously erased in 1953. In her drawing, Harrison has placed the piece next to one of our contemporary pop-culture tragedies in Winehouse.

While this drawing is not necessarily an iconic work, it does provide a strong example of why these two artists have been compared to each other. Harrison, like Rauschenberg, is using imagery and sounds that are probably part of her working space and her own background. She utilizes her experiences to push and share her ideas, in this case taking a historically important work and comparing it to today.

Time will tell who will have the greater influence — de Kooning or Winehouse — but as of today it seems an almost absurd comparison. What’s most important about looking at a work like this is that we understand the artistic process and why it’s being presented. Also, this drawing is a great gateway into Harrison’s three-dimensional works.

The gallery has four rather large pieces of sculpture by Harrison spaced throughout. Stella 1 is a tall work made of a variety of materials, covered in cement and then painted over with acrylic paint. A framed picture of the young boy band Hanson has been adhered to one level.

On first glance, you get a sense of the immediacy of the material that Harrison chooses to use. The rough forms have to come together fairly quickly. Not that it necessarily matters, but it helps to show how Harrison is able to achieve such a painterly style. Cement will suck up a medium like acrylic paint and cause it do things other surfaces might not, providing its own unique surface.

This work shows Harrison has a special understanding of painting and the drive to try to interpret or use contemporary imagery that Rauschenberg might have had. In fact, the Hanson image is more than just an image. It’s a small framed thing, like you might win from a carnival game at a local fair. It’s funny on a variety of levels, but also points to the detritus of our world and frankly is a little jarring.

One of the things artists are so often trying to convey is their process. It’s different for every individual, but many share different aspects of the same ideas or motivations. Like the imagery and news we are inundated with every day, artists work to process and understand these things. Unlike everyone else, artists have a need to make and share thoughts and research with others.

This is an idea I encourage you to grapple with when you are presented with a work of art that pushes your comfort level. Don’t simply dismiss the artist because the thoughts seem trivial or foreign; dig deeper. What motivates us as a species is often far more complicated than what we understand at first glance.

Further, a resource like the Cleveland Museum of Art is one that needs to be taken advantage of again and again. Like the two artists presented in this show, there is a depth and beauty to our broader Northeast Ohio community that many miss until they stop and look.

]]>1.612462Fri, 31 Jul 2015 20:53:38 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/movies/with-a-new-vacation-a-look-at-laughable-comedy-remakes-1.612454?localLinksEnabled=false
The modern comedy remake is among the most laughable of movie genres.

In Hollywood’s reboot frenzy, the movie industry has increasingly turned to reviving classic comedies, only to find that few things are harder to rekindle than the elusive elements — Bill Murray’s timing, John Belushi’s eyebrows— that make up a great comedy. The distance between original and remake is usually as vast as it is between Caddyshack and Caddyshack II.

The latest attempt is Vacation, a new try at the classic National Lampoon series that first emanated from John Hughes’ short story Vacation ’58 and was launched with the 1983 Chevy Chase original. Chase makes a cameo in the latest Vacation, but he has ceded the driver’s seat to his son, Rusty Griswold, played by Ed Helms.

Reviews have been mixed to negative. In a column for the Hollywood Reporter, former National Lampoon editor P.J. O’Rourke judged the film from its trailer “post-humoristic” and “a summer cineplex dump-fill featuring the Hangover wimp dentist as leading man.”

Whether screwball or satire, comedy only works when it feels bracingly alive. Most remakes, though, tend to feel like they’ve been brought back from the dead, only with all the really good jokes left back in the cemetery.

Hollywood is devoted to getting it right, though. The biggest test will come next July when Paul Feig releases his big-budget Ghostbusters. Feig, at least, has had the good sense to try an entirely different tack, recasting the leads as female, including Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig.

But there are many others in various stages of quixotic development, including remakes of Meatballs, Fletch, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Police Academy.

With that in mind, here are a few lessons to draw from an often dubious tradition.

Just stay away

More often than not, the best advice is just put down the script and walk away. Such was the case for Shawn Levy’s The Pink Panther, which somehow managed to earn a 2009 sequel. Steve Martin is a tremendous performer, but no one should be attempting to follow in the clumsy footsteps of Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau.

Martin has been a curiously frequent remake star, including two Father of the Bride films and the somewhat better Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which came from the Marlon Brando, David Niven 1964 original.

Even the Coens fail

It’s a testament to the difficulty of the task if even Joel and Ethan Coen whiff it. The comedies produced by London’s Ealing Studios in the 1940s and ’50s are comedy royalty that few would have the courage to tackle. But the Coens tried it with The Ladykillers in 2004, attempting a broader comedy that traded Tom Hanks and Mississippi for Alec Guinness and London.

It’s among the Coens’ weaker films, though they can argue that they fell into directing it. They were first signed up just to write the script, but took over directing for Barry Sonnenfeld when he dropped out.

Worth noting, though, is that by staying true to the Charles Portis novel, the Coens did give us easily the best True Grit.

Irreplaceable stars

Russell Brand is not Dudley Moore. And Adam Sandler isn’t Burt Reynolds. Brand and Sandler both have their particular talents, but neither were well suited heirs to their remakes of Arthur — the 2011 version of Moore’s 1981 film — and The Longest Yard, which had Sandler sliding in for Reynolds in the 2005 prison football comedy.

Both originals, like many comedies, drew considerably from the distinct personas of their stars, making for an out of whack chemistry in the remakes.

Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick had an even higher bar to meet in taking over for Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder in the 2005 film The Producers. If only someone had thought to try it as a Broadway musical instead.

It’s not impossible

An unavoidable fact is that a few of the very best comedies ever made were remakes. The zippy brilliance of Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday (1940) came nine years after the play it was based on, The Front Page, had been turned into a film. It would be tried again, too, in 1974 by Billy Wilder with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and in 1988 — as Switching Channels, a lamentable swap of TV news for the newspaper biz starring Reynolds.

And Wilder’s Some Like it Hot, that majestically madcap 1959 comedy, was based on a 1935 French film called Fanfares of Love. When the screenplay couldn’t be found, producer Walter Mirisch tracked down a German remake of it for Wilder to write from.

In the movies, originality can be a mangled, many-authored thing. Nobody’s perfect.

]]>1.612454Fri, 31 Jul 2015 20:51:31 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/rich-heldenfels/mailbag-switched-at-birth-returns-this-month-legends-in-the-fall-1.612449?localLinksEnabled=false
You have questions. I have some answers.

Q: I have not seen or heard anything about the program “Switched at Birth” on ABC Family. Can you tell me if it will be coming back soon?

a: The series will have its “summer premiere” on Aug. 24. Here’s how the network sums up the first episode: “Bay is haunted by her breakup with Emmett and struggles to figure out where their relationship fell apart. Daphne’s excitement about her new relationship with Mingo is hampered by her friends’ opinion of him. John and Kathryn’s new accountant has some bad news. Regina digs deeper into the story of Eric’s ex-wife, and everyone is shocked by the news that someone is pregnant.”

Q: Whatever happened to the summer TV series called “Legends” and is there any chance it’s coming back?

A: TNT has ordered a second season of the drama starring Sean Bean. Instead of airing during summer, it will be part of the network’s fall slate. There is not a specific air date yet.

Q: Are the characters Lena on “The Whispers” and Chloe on “Zoo” both played by Kristen Connolly?

A: While Connolly does play Lena on ABC’s The Whispers, Chloe on CBS’ Zoo is played by Nora Arnezeder.

Q: Is “Strike Back” ever coming back? I believe I saw a promo for a new season in production but it was maybe two years ago. I’ve recently seen NBC promos for fall shows and the two stars of “Strike Back” are now on NBC.

A: Strike Back began a fourth season and final season on Cinemax on July 31, long after the third season concluded in October 2013. And yes, stars Philip Winchester and Sullivan Stapleton have moved on to NBC series. Winchester stars in The Player as security expert trying to stop some of the biggest crimes imaginable — while the wealthy bet on his chances of doing so. Stapleton is in Blindspot as a federal agent entangled with a mysterious woman whose tattoos represent crimes the FBI must solve.

Q: Why did the popular programs “The Good Wife,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Bones” let the popular males Will, Derek and Sweet leave the series? To me they were integral roles in each program.

A: In two cases — Josh Charles on The Good Wife and John Francis Daley on Bones — the actors wanted a change in their working life. Daley, for one, is co-director and co-writer of the new version of Vacation starring Ed Helms. Charles has what Showtime has called “a major guest-starring role” in Masters of Sex, currently in its third season; he plays Daniel Logan, “a self-made businessman working in the scent industry” who wants to “bottle the smell of sex and market an aphrodisiac to the general public.”

The situation with Patrick Dempsey on Grey’s appears to be more complicated. He has had outside interests, including auto racing, and spoke about moving on from the show at times. The show has never been afraid to kill off characters. But Dempsey had a contract for the coming season.

Still, last season there were reports that his behavior on the show had become difficult to deal with; his marriage ended during the season, and around that time he was absent from six episodes. Dempsey, meanwhile, told Entertainment Weekly that “I want to try something different” but being written off the show “was something that was kind of surprising and uh, just naturally came to be.”

•

Do you have a question or comment for the mailbag? Write to the Akron Beacon Journal, 44 E. Exchange St., Akron, OH 44309 or send email to rheldenfels@thebeacon journal.com. Please mark the email or envelope with “mailbag.” Letters may be edited for publication. Please do not phone in questions. Individual replies cannot be guaranteed.

Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal, Ohio.com. Facebook, Twitter and the HeldenFiles Online blog.

If you are willing to do the work and follow up, there are several ways you can get free gift cards:

• iBotta: A free app that gives cash back after purchasing specified items. The money can either be converted to a gift card from vendors such as Starbucks, Aeropostale and iTunes, or deposited into a PayPal account.

• Shopkick: Users collect points on this app simply by walking into featured stores or by scanning merchandise. The points can be redeemed for gift cards from companies such as Target, Old Navy and Best Buy.

• Swagbucks: Points can be earned by searching the Internet, taking surveys and watching product videos. Site offers a PayPal payment as well as gift cards from Amazon, Target and Walmart.

• GiftHulk: Search the Web, play games and enter codes to earn gift cards from Kohl’s, iTunes and Amazon.

— Tara McAlister

Charlotte Observer

Hints from Heloise:

Shoe organizer saves space in tiny bathroom

Dottie K. in Warren, Ohio, writes: Our bathroom is small! We have no counter space. I hung a shoe bag on the back of the door. I put my shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, lotions, body washes, hair sprays and hair brushes in it. It’s a lifesaver!

Katherine R. in Fort Worth, Texas, writes: We had screens replaced on our house, and some were in pretty good shape. I cleaned them up and use them around the house. One way is as a drying rack for my sweaters and clothes I hand wash.

— King Features

Men with degrees wait longer to have children

A college education dramatically decreases a man’s chances of becoming a young father.

Seventy percent of dads ages 22 to 44 who have less than a high school diploma fathered their first child before age 25, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of National Center for Health Statistics data. By comparison, 45 percent of dads with some college experience had a child by 25, and just 14 percent of dads with a bachelor’s degree had their first child by 25.

Dads who don’t finish high school are far less likely to enter fatherhood later in life, the study found, with just 9 percent of these less-educated dads having their first child between ages 30 and 44. Forty-four percent of men with a bachelor’s degree or more have their first child between ages 30 and 44.

A Pew Research Center report earlier this year found more educated women also delay parenthood. The median age for women with master’s degrees or more to have their first child is now 30, according to the report, while the median age for women with a high school diploma or less to become moms is 24.

Sixty-two percent of mothers who never attended college had their first child before age 25, the report said, and 17 percent become moms as teenagers.

— Heidi Stevens

Chicago Tribune

]]>1.612440Fri, 31 Jul 2015 20:49:45 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/tv/maisie-williams-to-be-brand-new-character-on-doctor-who-1.612421?localLinksEnabled=false
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.: When viewers see Maisie Williams on the new season of “Doctor Who,” she’ll be a brand-new character, not one from the past.

“Once you see what she’s up to ... you’ll appreciate what a clever idea it was,” show runner Steven Moffat said Friday at a TV critics panel. “It’s a significant role. We’re not just getting star value and throwing it away. It’s a great part, and she’s terrific in it.”

Williams is best known as Arya Stark on HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” and Moffat says her role on “Doctor Who” is different for the 18-year-old actress.

“If people are hugely associated with a much-loved show, then it’s good to have them on your show. The audience is clever. They know you’re playing somebody else. They don’t get confused,” he said.

Moffat also teased that “it will take you a moment or two to realize what we’re up to” with Williams’ character.

Season nine of “Doctor Who,” which stars Peter Capaldi as The Doctor and Jenna Coleman as his companion, Clara, premieres Sept. 19 on BBC America.

]]>1.612421Fri, 31 Jul 2015 19:42:33 +0000http://www.ohio.com/news/politics/gop-debate-in-cleveland-what-do-you-ask-and-whom-are-you-asking-1.612243?localLinksEnabled=false
For a political debate moderator, preparing for the big event is not unlike trying to hit a moving target.

“On the one hand, you prepare well in advance,” said Chris Wallace, one of the moderators for Fox News Channel’s prime-time debate Thursday night in Cleveland.

“I’ve already written probably 25 questions,” said Wallace, who also worked Fox debates in 2008 and 2012. “On the other hand, you also have to remain flexible. So as late as 5 or 6 o’clock of the night of the debate, if something comes up — whether it’s news or a comment made by somebody else — you can write new questions.”

And during a debate itself, something could change the course of the discussion. As with his Sunday show for the Fox broadcast network, Wallace said, “You go in with a blueprint and you’re ready to throw it away on a moment’s notice.”

But at least on Thursday, that blueprint may come with erasures and scribbled revisions. It’s not even clear yet who will be in the main debate, or in a secondary one earlier that night.

This much we know: At 9 p.m. Thursday, Fox News Channel will air a two-hour, 10-candidate debate. Wallace, Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly are moderators, each with a separate set of topics for discussion. Facebook, the official host of the debate with Fox News, will also have a role in the questioning.

With a lot of outspoken contenders ready to face each other, the interest will be enormous, and reaching far beyond Fox News. One example: MSNBC’s Hardball and Andrea Mitchell Reports will air live from Cleveland on Thursday, and the network’s Morning Joe will broadcast from the city Friday morning. Bill Hemmer of Fox News called the debates “the biggest political event of the summer.”

“I’m shocked by how much attention this is getting,” Wallace said in a telephone interview Monday. “I think it’s the combination of there are so many [candidates] and it’s a strong, qualified field. You’ve got current and former governors, current and former senators. You’ve got Donald Trump. So it’s an interesting and entertaining field.”

Ten is the most there have been for previous presidential debates (including the Republicans in 2007 and the Democrats in 2003). “We were kind of following precedent in that regard,” he said.

However, 17 significant Republican candidates have announced, with the 17th, Jim Gilmore, filing his statement of candidacy on Wednesday.

“You want to be as inclusive as you can be,” Wallace said. “If you put 17 people on the stage, just do the math. Everybody ends up getting about three or four minutes, and that doesn’t serve anybody. It doesn’t serve the candidates and most importantly … it doesn’t serve the viewer to see so little of each candidate.”

Who will make the cut?

Fox has said the top 10 will be announced at 5 p.m. Tuesday based on “an average of the five most recent national polls, as recognized by Fox News … conducted by major, nationally recognized organizations that use standard methodological techniques.”

Yes, Donald Trump is a lock for the main debate. At the same time, the network has not said which specific polls it is using, sparking a guessing game about who will be in the top 10 and who will not.

Gov. John Kasich has been sitting uneasily on the bubble, right about the 10th spot in some averages but not a certainty.

His making the prime-time debate “is in question,” Wallace said. “I would like to see him there. First of all, I think he’s a very interesting figure. And secondly, there’s a certain feeling that you’d like to see the two-term governor of the state where the debate is being held on the stage.”

And he’d like to see Carly Fiorina, also lagging in the polls, “just because it would be nice to have a woman, and I think she’s an interesting and strong advocate for her positions.

“But it’s just going to be the numbers … how they average out,” Wallace said.

If Kasich were not to make the top 10, he would slide to a separate, hour-long debate, airing at 5 p.m. Thursday, which will feature remaining contenders. Hemmer and Martha MacCallum will moderate that one, and have been looking at about a dozen topics for discussion, Hemmer said.

But how many will be in that debate? At one point, Fox said a candidate had to have at least 1 percent in the polls to make the cut for the second debate. But that could have eliminated some prominent Republicans, including Lindsey Graham and George Pataki. So Fox changed its standard to any declared Republicans outside the top 10 “whose names are consistently being offered to respondents in major national polls, as recognized by Fox News.”

“It’s not the prime time show,” Wallace said. “But it gives them an opportunity to reach out to viewers and voters as well.”

That could put as many as seven candidates in the early evening debate, if Gilmore is added to polls by the debate-selection deadline.

“We’ll see what the number is,” said Hemmer. “We’ll see who they are. We’ll see who’ll make the cut.”

If this sounds like a lot to deal with, it could be much, much worse. A recent check of Federal Election Commission statements of candidacy for president in 2016 found more than 500 names, with about 125 calling themselves Republican. So, inevitably, there is some culling of the herd.

Corralling the candidates

Then, once the debates start, how do you control them?

“Governor Kasich, when he announced he was running, spoke for 43 minutes without a teleprompter,” Hemmer said. “We need to figure out a way to make it equitable and make sure everybody feels like they’ve got a fair shake.”

While there are plenty of chatty contenders in this race, that’s not new, Wallace said. “Newt Gingrich was not a shrinking violet,” said Wallace. “Herman Cain … Rudy Giuliani … or John McCain in 2008.”

“The rules are clear,” Wallace said. In the prime-time debate, at least, a candidate gets 60 seconds to answer a question, with warning lights along the way and a sound when the time is up. (But not a doorbell sound. Fox used that in a previous debate, and heard from angry dog-owning viewers whose pooches freaked when the bell rang.) If a candidate mentions an opponent in the answer, then the opponent gets 30 seconds to respond.

“I expect all the candidates will play by the rules,” Wallace said optimistically. “If there’s one candidate you wonder about a little bit, it is Donald Trump. He obviously is running an extremely unconventional campaign. Have we talked about what we do if Trump just decides to play by his own rules? Yeah. My basic strategy would be, if I’m questioning, is to appeal to the idea that we have rules and the other candidates are abiding by them.”

For all that is going into the debate, it’s also important to remember that it’s one step in what has already been a long campaign season, and not necessarily the most important one. Wallace recalled how Herman Cain became a sensation after one debate in 2012, but faded, and that Rick Perry’s famous “oops” moment in a debate came when “he was having troubles well before that.”This is only the first of nine GOP-sanctioned debates running into March 2016, a period that will also see candidates giving speeches and interviews, advertising and — through surrogates — being advertised.

“It is what it is,” said Wallace. “It’s two hours and when it’s over, the campaign goes on and we’re still talking almost six months before the first voting. You can overstate how important it is. … It’s interesting because it will be the first one of the cycle … but do I think it’s make or break? Probably not.”

Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal, Ohio.com, Facebook, Twitter and the HeldenFiles Online blog. You can contact him at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.

The British singer has a unique sound that transcends genres. Her music is not quite R&B, folk music or jazz, but a melding of all three. It’s cool, yet simmering with passion, reserved at times, but bombastic and funky at others.

“I just kind of wanted to mix all the genres and mix all the things that I like together,” La Havas said. “Everything comes from wanting to merge many styles together.”

The singer-songwriter-guitarist is set to release her second album, “Blood,” on Friday. Her sultry 2012 debut, “Is Your Love Big Enough,” was a critical success; among its accolades was being crowned iTunes album of the year in the United Kingdom. It also won her high-profile fans, including Prince, who has raved about her. He featured her on his 2014 album, “Art Official Age,” and enlisted her for performances, including on “Saturday Night Live.”

Her new album comes with high expectations. For “Blood,” La Havas pushed herself to sample new styles of writing.

“I am a little bit different now so, I think you will probably hear that in the music. There’s lots of change,” La Havas said.

The 25-year-old created “Blood” while on her first trip to Jamaica with her mother. La Havas, of Jamaican and Greek ancestry, said, “It just felt strangely appropriate to just be making music there.”

La Havas said unlike her first album, she worked with many producers, including reggae and dancehall star Stephen McGregor (also known as Di Genius), to create songs like her booming, beat-driven single “Unstoppable.”

“I was able to kind of just do what I wanted, and so there was no kind of limitations with the ideas and the songwriting,” La Havas said.

La Havas will spend August touring Europe and then returns to the United States for a tour in the fall. She calls the spread of her music in the United States phenomenal.

“It’s just amazing that anyone over here has heard the music and likes it,” La Havas said. “To know that it has traveled is really exciting.”

Sylvester Stallone is parting with memorabilia from the “Rocky” and “Rambo” movies, but he’s keeping the two characters alive onscreen.

The entertainer, 69, announced Thursday that he’ll put hundreds of props and costumes from his 40-year career up for auction in October, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting military charities. Some of the items Stallone has agreed to sell include Rambo’s Army jacket and Rocky’s gloves, robe and boxing trunks.

Stallone isn’t saying goodbye to the characters. Instead, he’s set to become Rocky Balboa again onscreen in Creed this fall and is working on another Rambo installment.

‘Rhoda’ actress, 75, hospitalized

Officials at a Maine playhouse say Valerie Harper has been hospitalized after falling ill before a performance.

Officials at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine say the actress, 75, who has battled cancer, was taken to a hospital Wednesday before the evening performance of Nice Work If You Can Get It.

A statement Thursday says she’s “resting comfortably and will remain in the hospital for observation for the time being.”

Harper is well known for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

The singer and former star of The Partridge Family television series and the father of two, is auctioning the waterfront home and all its furnishings Sept. 9 as part of bankruptcy and divorce proceedings.

“My soon-to-be ex-wife and I need to resolve our financial problems,” Cassidy told the Associated Press while leading a home tour last week.

Cassidy bought the house in 2001 for $1.1 million, and he estimates he spent about $1 million more in renovations.

Catch a free family film outdoors with downtown Kent’s Sidewalk Cinema, in the Hometown Bank Plaza, Main and Water Streets. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs will be shown at dusk. 330-673-4970.

Hike under the blue moon in the Falls

The blue moon won’t see you standing alone if you take the National Park Service’s hike from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Cuyahoga Valley. Meet at the Hunt House off Bolanz Road in Cuyahoga Falls for a 2.2-mile walk on the Towpath Trail to check out the heavenly sight. 330-657-2752. The next blue moon won’t occur until 2018.

]]>1.612274Fri, 31 Jul 2015 03:03:00 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/rich-heldenfels/heldenfiles-melina-kanakaredes-potential-new-tv-series-local-musician-on-screen-in-ny-1.612211?localLinksEnabled=false
Notes on this and that …

Melina’s moves. Akron’s own Melina Kanakaredes has made a deal to star in, co-write and executive produce a possible new TV series called Stolen for Good, Deadline.com reports.

Kanakaredes, whose previous credits include long runs on CSI: NY and Providence, has been reappearing on TV after what looked like an extended acting break. She was a guest star on Hawaii Five-O last season and on Wednesday will be on CBS’s drama Extant. The latter show stars another Northeast Ohioan, Halle Berry.

As for this new project, Deadline says it “centers on the mysterious ‘Hermes Thief’ [Kanakaredes], a renowned international thief whose true identity is unknown. In a world where nothing is as it seems, she rights the wrongs of the past by retrieving stolen priceless items and returning them to their rightful owners. She blazes a trail of powerful enemies, from private collectors to ISIS, fearlessly stealing from anyone anywhere.”

Nancy Miller, creator of the fine series Saving Grace, will be executive producer and show runner.

•

Big debut. The New York Film Festival has announced that Miles Ahead will be the closing-night presentation on Oct. 11. Yes, there is a local connection.

The film, making its world premiere at the festival, stars Don Cheadle, who also directed and co-wrote it, as legendary trumpeter Miles Davis. It’s a look at Davis at a crucial point in his career in the late ’70s. It also has flashbacks to other points in Davis’ life, including his ’60s work with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams and Wayne Shorter in what’s been called Davis’ second great quintet.

And Theron Brown, well known on the local music scene, plays Hancock.

The movie was shot in Cincinnati in July and August 2014. Brown, an Akron resident, was invited to audition for the role of a piano player, discovering later that it was Hancock. Fortunately, Hancock was one of Brown’s musical influences — since he’s both portrayed in the movie and supervising the soundtrack.

The festival begins on Sept. 25.

•

Is it just about the workplace? With all the reporting and commentary about Summa Health System’s dress code, you may find of interest a recent New York Post column called — bluntly — “For the love of God, stop dressing like crap.”

The piece by Elisabeth Vincentelli objects to the way some people suit up for Broadway shows “as though they’d just walked in from a tailgating party,” the Metropolitan Opera “in Crocs” and one tony museum “in cutoffs.”

Vincentelli then expands her targets to include airports where “many fliers appear ready for bed in their saggy sweatpants — or even pajamas” and to argue that “hot pants are maybe not the best idea at a gourmet restaurant.”

Dressing better can make you feel better, she argues. And to the more casual, she warns: “If you dress like a child, chances are you’re going to act like one.”

Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal, Ohio.com. Facebook, Twitter and the HeldenFiles Online blog. You can contact him at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com. You don’t have to dress up to do so.

]]>1.612211Fri, 31 Jul 2015 02:04:46 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/movies/orbiting-secrets-star-wars-and-fandom-with-simon-pegg-1.612081?localLinksEnabled=false
LOS ANGELES: Simon Pegg has too many state secrets to keep track of, and most of that is J.J. Abrams’ fault.

Ever since the prolific director saw Pegg in Edgar Wright’s zombie comedy “Shaun of the Dead,” the British actor has become tethered to some of film’s biggest franchises. First it was “Mission: Impossible III,” as Benji, the tech turned field agent, then came “Star Trek,” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which Abrams casually asked him to be part of over dinner.

Pegg is now on his third film in both the “Mission: Impossible” series (“Rogue Nation,” in theaters this weekend), and 2016’s “Star Trek Beyond,” which he’s co-writing.

With his deft comic timing and expressive eyes, whether as franchise sidekick or leading man, Pegg enlivens every frame. He’s also become a singular cultural force via his website, thoughtfully examining fandom, internet culture and how films fit into the world.

Pegg spoke to The Associated Press over Skype from New York about this moment in his career.

The remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: Is there a type of film you prefer?

Pegg: I’m not one of those people who do one for me and one for them. I love doing the big films — it’s a thrill ride to be in a movie with Tom Cruise — and to do my films with Edgar. It’s just a question of getting to fit them in.

AP: What’s it like knowing Cruise personally and seeing the media scrutiny around him?

Pegg: It annoys me when I hear someone say something about him that’s just utterly unfounded...I’ll find myself saying, “no he’s just a regular guy,” but he’s not a regular guy. He’s exceptional. He lives an exceptional life, but he is aware of that fact. He knows what he sacrificed, what he forgoes to be who he is. But he’s still essentially a human being at the heart of it. He’s not some spaced out guy who has no concept of reality — he does and he’s quite philosophical about it... (His Scientology beliefs have) never come up. We’ve never spoken about that in 10 years. I’m an atheist so I think all religion is a bit crazy. Whether it’s Xenu or Jesus it all sounds a bit daft to me.

AP: What are you hoping to bring to “Star Trek Beyond?”

Pegg: It’s going to be spectacular, but we’re going to underpin that with some genuine 50th Anniversary ideas about what’s happening in our world and the “Star Trek” world and try to make it a bit thoughtful too. Cake and eat it.

AP: Is it difficult to be involved in so many secretive projects?

Pegg: It is difficult because you want to sing it to the world. I’ve had a picture on my phone of me hugging Chewbacca that I’d been holding on to for months that I haven’t been able to show anybody. But these days there’s a culture of spoiler-ism that exists because people want to get their websites traffic...it’s a little selfish.

AP: How so?

Pegg: You’re essentially destroying that very thing by increments. That’s always been J.J.’s thing — protect the film. If you’re going to go see “Star Wars,” don’t watch the trailers. Just wait. Be patient. Sit in that movie house and let it all be a surprise. That’s the best way to watch a movie.

AP: Can you say how long you were on the “Star Wars” set?

Pegg: I was there even when I wasn’t working. I was just happy to go and watch it all happen.

AP: Were you there when Harrison Ford got hurt?

Pegg: The day before. Everything had been going so well. The first day that Harrison came out in costume and Chewie was there, I’ve never seen so many people around the monitors watching. It was just a joyous time and then this setback hit. The guy has the recovery of Wolverine. It’s insane. For a man who’s 73, he is so resilient.

AP: And then the plane crash.

Pegg: I kept in touch with J.J. throughout Harrison’s convalescence. He landed that plane like an expert. He is a hero in life and in fantasy.

AP: How do you engage with fans now?

Pegg: I was on Twitter for a long time and I thought it was time to back away. I felt too available. As an actor you need a degree of mystique and have to stay a little bit removed. But if people are willing to go through the rigmarole of sending a little stamp addressed envelope and a little note, I’ll always get back to them. I try to keep that empathy — knowing what it’s like to be a fan and hoping to treat them the way I’d expect to be treated.

]]>1.612081Thu, 30 Jul 2015 16:54:13 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/pop-music/judge-defends-actions-in-country-singers-divorce-case-1.612073?localLinksEnabled=false
SHAWNEE, Okla.: An Oklahoma judge is defending his actions in allowing country music stars Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert to keep details of their divorce private.

The Oklahoman newspaper reports that attorneys and others had criticized Pottawatomie County Associate District Judge John Gardner after he sealed the musicians’ entire divorce file.

Gardner made public a protective order on Tuesday explaining his July 6 decision. He is retiring this week.

Gardner says allowing the case to be public would have greatly compromised the personal and financial privacy of both parties. He also noted that matters in the case would have garnered “significant publicity” that most others wouldn’t.

Shelton and Lambert announced last week that they were divorcing after four years of marriage.

]]>1.612073Thu, 30 Jul 2015 16:37:22 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/tv/jon-stewart-meeting-with-obama-wasn-t-a-secret-1.612072?localLinksEnabled=false
NEW YORK: Jon Stewart says his “secret” White House meetings with President Barack Obama weren’t so secret, and not that big a deal.

During his penultimate week as “The Daily Show” host, Stewart reacted to a Politico story headlined “Jon Stewart’s Secret White House Visits.” The article said Stewart had met with the president in 2011 and again last year.

“That sounds so much more awesome than what happened,” Stewart said on his show Wednesday night.

After joking about meeting with Obama “and Elvis, who’s still alive,” Stewart noted that he entered the White House through its public entrance and that both meetings were listed in the White House visitor logs, available for anyone to see.

“Something is not a secret just because you don’t know about it,” Stewart said, in a segment titled “When Barry Met Silly.”

He depicted it as an invitation few Americans would reject.

“By the way, to all future presidents, if you ask me to come to Washington, I will do that,” he said. “Because I have no idea how to react to that other than (say) ‘what time?”’

He said Obama encouraged him not to make young Americans cynical about their government, and Stewart explained that he was actually skeptically idealistic. Otherwise, he said the conversation was much like it was when Obama appeared on “The Daily Show” earlier this month, only with a very good lunch.

“Was the president of the United States trying to influence, intimidate or flatter me?” Stewart said. “My guess is, ‘uh huh.’ Did it work? Might have. Was it sinister? I don’t (expletive) know.”

Stewart said he frequently takes calls from all sorts of important people, with the general thrust of the conversation being what a jerk he is, although he used stronger language.

Only one person ended their meeting by saying he would deny ever talking to Stewart if the conversation became public, and the screen identified him: Fox News Channel chief Roger Ailes.

That may have been Ailes’ idea of a joke, since he talked about his discussion with Stewart in a 2010 interview.

]]>1.612072Thu, 30 Jul 2015 16:33:56 +0000http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/some-e-j-thomas-hall-shows-must-go-on-but-many-are-wondering-how-1.611935?localLinksEnabled=false
The University of Akron’s announcement of the closing of E.J. Thomas Hall and the subsequent firing of the building’s staff has caused a shockwave of concern through the downtown community, especially restaurants that rely on its weeknight events for a boost in customers.

The announcement also sent area organizations that regularly use the hall for their events scrambling through social media to allay their patrons’ fears, saying the university intends to honor plans to host upcoming seasons. But the week’s developments left many wondering how UA planned to bring large events to the hall with no staff in place.

“How are they going to do that?” asked Dan Dahl, former executive director of E.J. Thomas. “The ticket office is closed. They walked in, told Randy [Yost, former ticket office manager] to send the kids home, give them the money in the safe, give them the keys and ‘bye-bye; thanks a lot,’ ” Dahl said.

For its part, the university has yet to address its event staffing strategy. Efforts to reach senior university officials for comment were unsuccessful Wednesday.

Dahl said he was aware that a tightening was coming since March, and was expecting to lose about half of his staff. He also said he had drawn up several budget plans detailing how the hall could remain open and at least partially staffed.

But he took it as an ominous sign when, as the expected cuts drew nearer, his daily efforts to reach his vacationing boss or anyone else at the school were fruitless.

“We knew when they started showing up — when the police showed up at the front door. Which is how they do it corporately,” he said.

Regular E.J. Thomas Hall renters including the Akron Symphony Orchestra and the Tuesday Musical Association also knew something was about to happen, but the severity seems to have caught all by surprise.

“Everyone’s fairly connected to know that changes are in the air. But our sources were telling us that our season and our events would remain unaffected at the hall,” said Paul Jarrett, Akron Symphony Orchestra executive director.

Looking on bright side

The orchestra performed the very first concert at E.J. Thomas Hall 41 years ago, and Jarrett said “at this point in time” patrons have little to fear about the changes’ impact on the orchestra.

“You hate to see a reduction in the amount of artistic productions that are presented to a community,” he said. “But we are still going to be here and the Akron Symphony Orchestra is not defined by the hall within which we play. But, that being said, our intention is to stay at E.J. definitely for this season and, ideally, beyond.”

Likewise, the Tuesday Musical Association which has been hosting performances in the area for more than 125 years, assured its members in a Facebook missive that its season and future is secure.

“We still feel for our friends who lost their jobs,” executive director Jarrod Hartzler said. “But at this point, everyone keeps saying it ‘all will be fine,’ so we’re waiting to find out what ‘all will be fine’ means in the absence of any box office or production staff.”

Meetings planned

Both the Akron Symphony Orchestra and Tuesday Musical Association have meetings in the coming weeks with UA officials and say they expect more clarification on the status of the facility and their ability to continue with their schedules.

In the case of Tuesday Musical, which purchased and houses a Steinway grand piano at E.J. Thomas, the group is expecting assurances that the piano and the climate-controlled piano garage in which it sits will be ready to go come the fall.

“It’s our hope that everything works well and we are there for our first concert [Sept. 30],” Hartzler said.

Impact on restaurants

Several downtown businesses — particularly restaurants for whom the hall’s weeknight slate was a dependable influx of customers — are worried about the economic impact on downtown.

Zack Hirt, owner and executive chef of downtown Mexican restaurant Nuevo, who also worked at Crave, Piatto and other downtown eateries, is worried that the weeknight boost that he and other downtown restaurants get from E.J. Thomas shows will dry up.

“I’ve worked downtown for years, so I’ve seen the impact that performances at E.J. have on Akron,” Hirt said.

“On weekends, it’s fine. But on weekday nights, it’s a crapshoot. And when they do a show, restaurants fill up and it’s amazing. It’s so nice to have something that helpful going on,” he said.

Hirt said he had recently come to an agreement with an E.J. Thomas official for dinner and a show for ticketholders for the hall’s Broadway series packages to come to Nuevo for a specially priced theme dinner before going to the show.

“It was a Tuesday and a Wednesday night — which would have been helpful for us — and we were looking forward to some fun menu playing off the show. And I saw that press release on Monday, and it blew my mind,” he said.

Aaron Hervey, owner of Crave, is also worried about losing the preshow business.

“It stinks across the board,” he said of the firing of the E.J. staff and its possible reverberations on his business.

“Of course it’s horrible. We do a huge business from the pre-theater crowd that goes there. And Dan [Dahl] does his best to cross-promote, so it’s bad on all fronts,” Hervey said.

British singer Jane Birkin has asked Hermes to take her name off the crocodile-skin versions of the iconic Birkin handbag, after being contacted by animal rights group PETA over “cruel” slaughtering practices.

A PETA video from June shows several reptiles at a Texas farm that supplies crocodile skins to Hermes left twitching in a bloody ice container to die after being shot with a captive bolt gun and cut with a knife.

Birkin said in a statement obtained Wednesday that she was “alerted to the cruel practices ... to make Hermes handbags carrying my name” and has “asked Hermes to de-baptize the Birkin Croco until better practices in line with international norms can be put in place.”

The bag can cost between $10,000 and over $100,000, with waiting lists to buy it famously stretching into the years.

Shakira shows off son in video

Shakira and pro soccer player Gerard Pique may have another athlete in the family.

On Wednesday, Shakira, 38, posted a video to Twitter and Facebook of the couple’s youngest child, Sasha, who was born in January, in which she appears holding her son in front of a soccer ball.

“Kick,” the Colombian star says repeatedly to the baby boy, who raises his leg and succeeds on the first try.

The 12-second video racked up nearly 2 million views on Facebook in an hour.

John Legend contributes to TV show

John Legend is bringing his talents to a TV drama about Southern slaves fighting for freedom.

WGN America says Legend and his production company will be in charge of the score and soundtrack for Underground.

The drama is in production in Baton Rouge, La. It stars Aldis Hodge as the organizer of an escape effort by plantation slaves. Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Christopher Meloni co-star.

Kid Rock brings his budget-friendly show (only $20!) to Blossom Music Center, kicking off at 6:45 p.m. with openers Packway Handle Band and ’80s stalwarts Foreigner. Tickets are going fast; call 330-745-3000 or check www.ticketmaster.com.

Teen Expo makes way to Lock 3

The Akron PeaceMakers’ ninth annual Teen Expo will be from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at Lock 3. Admission is free for the event, which will include an interactive mobile game truck, obstacle courses, photo booth and airbrush tattoos. Exhibitors will provide teens with information on education, health, safety and volunteer opportunities. The musical finale features America’s Got Talent finalist Quintavious Johnson, and local teens also will perform. The PeaceMakers is a youth civic/anti-crime program that promotes positive lifestyles for teens. For information, visit akronpeacemakers.org or call 330-365-2660 or 330-375-2712.

]]>1.611928Wed, 29 Jul 2015 22:57:38 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/movies/review-mission-accomplished-for-cruise-in-new-mi-flick-1.611922?localLinksEnabled=false
There’s some interesting talk in the cleverly satisfying script of Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation about the element of luck. As in: How much is luck a factor in the success of Ethan Hunt and his IMF cohorts? In the last movie they merely saved us from a nuclear holocaust. Was it talent, work, or dumb luck?

Whatever you decide about that, let’s be clear about this: When it comes to Tom Cruise and his durability as an action hero, luck has little to do with it. The guy’s an action star extraordinaire, and it’s not luck or chance but work and smarts and yes, some swashbuckling derring-do that get him there.

Whatever you may think of Cruise and his complex off-screen persona, at age 53, he and his Ethan Hunt are, if anything, getting more fun to watch. And they make Rogue Nation not merely a serviceable summer flick, but an entertainment well worth your inflated ticket price.

Let’s give kudos to a few other folks, too, starting with director-writer Christopher McQuarrie, who puts his own stamp on the proceedings. McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) does this with both a wry script that often makes fun of what’s happening, and some seriously entertaining action pieces, including a complicated assassination sequence set in Vienna’s glittering opera house during a lavish production of Puccini’s Turandot. (Parents: Here’s a chance to get some opera into your kids’ summer — sort of like hiding the broccoli in the brownie mix.)

Also invaluable is returning MI vet Simon Pegg as Benji, the wise-cracking (and safe-cracking) computer whiz who provides a crucial dose not only of humor but also of humanity.

Welcome newcomers include Alec Baldwin, as a pompous CIA boss with deliciously dry delivery, and Rebecca Ferguson, making the most and then some of the obligatory female role. Ferguson is — get this — Swedish-born, named Ilsa here, and, yes, shows up in Casablanca, too.

Rogue Nation doesn’t start slowly. In fact, it begins with the scene you’re most likely to have heard about, because it involves Cruise’s own stunt work, in which the actor actually places himself on the wing of an airborne jet, and then — why not? — lets his legs slip, hanging on by only his hands as the landscape beneath gets tinier and tinier.

Why is Hunt on the wing? Well, that’s what can happen, annoyingly, when you try to board a plane after takeoff. He manages to successfully remove a case of nerve gas canisters, but we’re just getting started.

We soon learn that the IMF is being disbanded, and the timing is terrible.

Hunt is onto something really bad: the Syndicate, a nefarious group of former spies led by a vague, sinister leader (Sean Harris).

That the Syndicate is not attached to one particular nation — it is the “rogue nation” of the title — has eerie resonance in today’s world.

Hunt soon finds himself chained to a ceiling in a London dungeon. Enter Ilsa (Ferguson) who obviously has some attraction to Hunt, and a tendency to save his life, but also is clearly not working with him, either.

The two meet again in Vienna, and eventually in Morocco, where Hunt and his friends take on a mission that involves, for one thing, Hunt holding his breath underwater for an impossibly long time while fighting an impossibly strong current and many other things.

It shouldn’t surprise you to hear that Cruise apparently flirted with on-set danger here, too. And it’s impossible to deny that this knowledge adds to the fun. Early on, when Hunt was hanging off that plane, my 12-year-old companion — who’s grown up in the age of computer-generated wizardry — confidently whispered: “Ha, that’s totally a green screen.” And I was happy to be able to whisper back:

Antique lovers and juried art fans will enjoy the 42nd annual Zoar Harvest Festival on Saturday and Sunday in Zoar.

The craftsmen and craftswomen will be housed in the Artisan Showcase tent with their folk art, furniture and fine crafts. Many booths will feature handcrafting demonstrations.

More than 60 antique dealers will be at the event in northern Tuscarawas County.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, David Walker will speak about Jefferson Davis and the Civil War in the Historic Zoar Church.

Other attractions include antique cars, historic building tours, contemporary crafts, children’s historic games and herding dog and working-animal demonstrations. There will be German food, beer and live music.

Admission is $8 for adults with children 12 or younger admitted free.

Zoar off state Route 212 was founded in 1817 by German Separatists and thrived as a communal settlement for 80 years. It is managed by the Zoar Community Association and the Ohio History Connection.

The group Shivering Timbers will appear in concert Wednesday in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

The show will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Howe Avenue off Riverview Road north of Ira Road in Cuyahoga Falls.

The Akron-based group is composed of Sarah and Jason Benn (they are married) and Daniel Kshywonis.

Shivering Timbers is known for its indie rock, blues-punk and country-gospel music.

The group was discovered by their friend Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. Their first album was recorded with Auerbach’s help.

Family games and activities will get underway at 5:30 p.m.

The concert could be canceled by severe weather. Call 330-650-4636, ext. 228, after 2 p.m. for an updated weather report.

Today

Family campfire — The National Park Service is presenting a family campfire at 7 p.m. in the Cuyahoga Valley. Meet at the Ledges Shelter off Truxell Road in Boston Township. Family activities will begin at 6 p.m. 330-657-2752.

Beaver Marsh hikes — The National Park Service is presenting Beaver Marsh hikes at 9 and 11 a.m. Meet at the Ira Trailhead off Riverview Road in Cuyahoga Falls. The hikes will be repeated at 9 and 11 a.m. Monday. 330-657-2752.

Letter walk — Summit Metro Parks is conducting an alphabet walk for families with youngsters at 10 a.m. Meet at the Tinkers Creek Area of Liberty Park. That’s at 10303 Aurora-Hudson Road, Streetsboro. 330-865-8065 or www.­summitmetroparks.org.

Canoe float — The Portage Park District is offering a full-moon canoe float on the Cuyahoga River from U.S. 422 to the Camp Hi livery in Hiram Township. It will run from 8 to 11 p.m. It will be led by volunteer naturalist Joe Malmisur. The fee is $20 per person. Call the livery at 330-569-7621 to register.

Friday

Blue Moon hike — The National Park Service is offering a blue moon full-moon hike from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Cuyahoga Valley. Meet at the Hunt House off Bolanz Road in Cuyahoga Falls. It will be a 2.2-mile walk on the Towpath Trail. 330-657-2752.

Ledges hikes — The National Park Service is planning hikes to the Ledges at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Meet at the Ledges Shelter off Truxell Road in Boston Township. The hikes will be repeated at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tuesday. 330-657-2752.

Park concert — Gary Shreve and the Memphis Prowlers will perform from 7 to 9 p.m. at Goodyear Heights Metro Park off Newton Street in East Akron. Presented by the city of Akron Recreation Bureau. 330-375-2835.

Saturday

Family fun — Summit Metro Parks is presenting family-style games and outdoor fun from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Firestone Metro Park. Meet in the Coventry Oaks Area off Axline Road in South Akron. Dress for the weather. Parents must participate. 330-865-8065 or www.summitmetro­parks.org.

Woodland mushrooms — Summit Metro Parks is presenting a hike to look for woodland mushrooms from 9:30 a.m. to noon at Sand Run Metro Park. Meet in the Treaty Line Area off Treaty Line Road in northwest Akron. Edible are not part of the program. 330-865-8065 or www.summitmetroparks.org.

Brandywine Falls hikes — The National Park Service is offering hikes at Brandywine Falls at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The falls are off Brandywine Road in Sagamore Hills Township. The hikes will be repeated at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday and Wednesday. 330-657-2752.

Bird walk — The National Park Service is leading a bird walk from 7 to 10 a.m. in the Cuyahoga Valley. Meet volunteer naturalist Dwight Chasar at the Wetmore Trailhead off Wetmore Road in Boston Township. 330-657-2752.

Seaplane fly-in — The Corsair Model Aircraft Club will hold a seaplane fly-in from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Nimisila Reservoir. Meet at parking lot C-6 off Christman Road in the city of Green. All pilots must be sanctioned. 330-297-6177 or www.cmac.org.

Wild doings — The Wilderness Center at 9877 Alabama Ave. SW, Sugar Creek Township, is hosting Herpetology Day with reptiles and amphibians on display, hikes, feedings and more from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. In addition, the center is hosting a tree identification workshop from 1:30 to 3 p.m. For ages 8 or older. 1-877-359-5235 or www.wildernesscenter.org.

Valley wonders — The National Park Service is offering an off-the-beaten-path hike of up to 3 miles in the Cuyahoga Valley. It will run from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Meet at the Station Road Bridge Trailhead off Riverview Road in Brecksville. 330-657-2752.

Summer sounds — The Medina County Park District is presenting a hike to listen for summer sounds. The hike will begin at 3 p.m. at the Wolf Creek Environmental Center, 6100 Ridge Road (state Route 94), Sharon Township. For ages 7 to adult. 330-722-9364 or www.medinacountyparks.com.

Family karaoke — The Stark County Park District is presenting family karaoke from noon to 2 p.m. and again from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Walborn Marina Shelter, 11324 Price St. NE, Marlboro Township. 330-409-8096 or www.starkparks.com.

Monday

Coyote hike — Summit Metro Parks is conducting a coyote hike at 10:30 a.m. at Furnace Run Metro Park. Meet in the Brushwood Area off Townsend Road in Richfield Township. 330-865-8065 or www.summitmetroparks.org.

Tuesday

Park concert — The Metro Parks Ensemble will perform at 6:30 p.m. at Munroe Falls Metro Park. Free swimming from 5 to 8 p.m. The park is off South River Road in Munroe Falls. The concert will be canceled if it rains. Call 330-865-8060 after 4 p.m. for a weather update.

Trail run — Summit Metro Parks is conducting a group trail run from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on the Towpath Trail. Meet at the Big Bend Area off Merriman Road in northwest Akron. 330-865-8065 or www.summitmetroparks.org.

Evening hike — The National Park Service is presenting an evening hike from 7 to 9 p.m. on the Salt Run Trail in the Cuyahoga Valley. Meet at the Pine Hollow Trailhead off Quick Road in Boston Township. 330-657-2752.

Medina pedal — The Medina County Park District and Century Cycles are sponsoring a fitness pedal from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on the Chippewa Rail Trail. Meet at the trailhead off Chippewa Road in Lafayette Township. The ride will cover 6 to 10 miles. For ages 16 to adult. Helmets are required. 330-722-9364 or www.­medinacountyparks.com.

Wednesday

Fungus hike — Summit Metro Parks is conducting a fungus hike from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Sand Run Metro Park. Meet at the Shady Hollow Pavilion off Sand Run Parkway in northwest Akron. Edible are not part of the program. 330-865-8065 or www.summitmetroparks.org.

Run the Parcours — Summit Metro Parks is presenting a run on the 1.4-mile Parcours Trail from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at Sand Run Metro Park. Meet in the Treaty Line Area off Treaty Line Road in northwest Akron. 330-865-8065 or www.summitmetroparks.org.

Stroller hike — The Medina County Park District is sponsoring a stroller walk for parents with youngsters in strollers or toddlers at 10:30 a.m. at Hubbard Valley Park off Hubbard Valley Road in Guilford Township. For newborn to age 7 plus adults. 330-722-9364 or wwww.­medinacountyparks.com.

Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning at the beaconjournal.com.

]]>1.611918Wed, 29 Jul 2015 22:41:16 +0000http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/if-you-re-single-and-looking-to-mingle-we-ve-got-you-covered-right-here-1.611910?localLinksEnabled=false
It can be difficult to know where to go to meet people. This is true even if you’re not in search of a significant other (SO) and just want to meet a reasonably like-minded person who shares some of your interests and whom you don’t see at work every weekday.

And we’re not just talking about simply satisfying one’s carnal needs, because there are already a few apps that provide that service. But for people who’d like to meet and get to know a potential SO rather than just collect another one night stand, the process of searching out not just one person but groups of people with whom you share interests can be disheartening and discouraging.

The bar scene is often geared toward getting the under-30 set to freely trade money for copious amounts of alcohol, and it’s common knowledge — because we say so — that no 30-plus-aged adult should be seen drinking shots that contain an energy drink.

If the standard bars and newfangled apps aren’t the way you like to meet people, there are still plenty of analog, non-Red Bull-infused options.

We at the Beacon Journal always want to help, so here are some ideas for places, events and groups that are geared toward people meeting people.

Portage Cruises

While the bulk of Captain Judy’s jobs at Portage Cruises are rentals for groups, the small-business owner would love to have Thursday night single mingles events where folks board a boat on a Thursday night, sail to a Portage Lakes bar, eat and/or drink at said bar, then (safely and not too drunkenly) hop back on the boat to float around and do it again at the next Portage Lakes spot.

Sounds like a fun night to us.

If you agree and want to partake, give Captain Judy a call at 330-760-0270. Cost: $20 per person.

Art walks

Events such as these tend to bring a large variety of folks together, and between the various venues (galleries, bars, shops, restaurants, etc.) there’s a good chance that there will be at least a few interesting and interested people with whom you can meet and commiserate.

Akron’s Art Walk is held on the first Saturday of each month and officially begins at the Summit Artspace and spreads to spots downtown.

Canton’s First Fridays are on the first Friday of each month (you figured that out, right?) and officially begin at the Canton Art Museum before spreading its tentacles into the Canton Arts District.

Kent’s Third Thursday Art Walks are the baby of the bunch having begun this spring, but they also are an event designed to draw people downtown.

Hudson’s Second Friday Art Hops promote the arts in Hudson and support the work of studio artists and galleries.

Wine tastings

Do you enjoy a glass or two of fine wine as well as talking with fellow wine lovers about wine? There are several spots around the area that have regular wine tastings where groups of people gather and you don’t even have to buy anyone else a drink.

Several area grocery stores including Market District in Green ($6; 5:30-7:30 p.m. Fridays; www.marketdistrict.com) and West Point Market in Akron ($10; 4-6 p.m. first Fridays; www.westpointmarket.com) offer wine and appetizers at regular tastings.

Also, from 5 to 8 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month through Oct. 13, Wolf Creek Winery (2637 Cleveland-Massillon Road, Norton) is having “Yappy Hours” where gourmands can bring their canine drinking buddies and share a glass or two. Animals are not permitted inside the winery or on the deck. Proceeds will benefit GivePetsAChance.

Meetup.com

Want to find large groups of folks with at least one shared interest? The Akron corner of Meetup.com is chock full of groups looking for more folks.

There are several groups focused on singles including the Akron Professionals’ Meetup.

Are you a fit and active single near Portage County? There’s a group for that, too. If you’d just like to take your chances on nonsingles-focused groups there is a wide variety of meetups available.

Have a burning desire to ballroom dance? The 314 members of the NE Ohio Ballroom Dancing meetup group are waiting for you!

Are you in your 20s and 30s and interested in going out, having fun or engaging in “paintballing or whatevs?” There are more than 1,500 folks in the Akron 20s & 30s group who would like to do whatevs with you. Beer lovers, gamers, film lovers, poker players, euchre players, bowling, dancing, doomsday preppers and much more are all looking for new folks.

A bit further up north on the map, the singles-dancing meetups for Cleveland are well represented from the N.E. Ohio Get Hep Swing Dancers group to the more general Cleveland Nightlife group. Likewise some careful searching through Facebook should reap some potential groups such as the N.E. Ohio Over 45 Social Singles Group (which is also listed on meetup.com).

Downtown@Dusk

The Akron Art Museum’s long-running annual summer concert series is a good place for post-work mingling. The series features local bands, food and the chance to tour the museum’s galleries. It offers a casual, no pressure artistic place to meet and get to know someone.

Today, you and someone you meet can drink a beer and dig the primarily blues infused sounds of Peggy Coyle and the Mostly Blues Band before strolling through the galleries.

Akron Zoo — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, 500 Edgewood Ave. Live animal show It’s a Wild World, Tuesdays through Saturdays at 12:30 and 2 p.m. through Aug. 29, $2. New playground, Nature’s Play, is open and features five activities that encourage visitors to test their abilities with those of primates. The new, free play space is between the Tiger and Red Panda exhibits. The zoo is home to more than 700 animals representing more than 90 species. Admission is $11, $9 seniors and $8 ages 2-14. Parking: $3. 330-375-2550, www.akronzoo.org.

(R) A dramatic account of the infamous 1971 psychology experiment in which 24 male undergraduates acted out the randomly assigned roles of guards and prisoners, embracing their roles to a shocking degree. 2 hours, 2 minutes.

Cedar Lee, Nightlight

The YOUNG AND PRODIGIOUS T.S. SPIVET — Not rated

(PG) A 10-year-old cartographer secretly leaves his family’s ranch and travels across the country aboard a freight train to receive an award at the Smithsonian Institute. 1 hour, 45 minutes.

Cedar Lee, Tower City Cinema

Playing through next week

AMY — HHH½

(R) A documentary about the late singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, including her rise to fame and her struggles with relationship troubles, media attention and substance abuse. 2 hours, 8 minutes. Only at Cedar Lee, Cleveland Heights.

Ant-Man — HH

(PG-13) The Marvel Comics movie universe expands with the introduction of this vintage hero (played by Paul Rudd) with the ability to shrink to the size of an ant while retaining super-strength. Michael Douglas co-stars as his mentor. 1 hour, 57 minutes.

(R) Twenty years after an accident killed the lead actor of a high school play, students at the same small-town school resurrect the failed stage production, but things don’t go as planned. 1 hour, 21 minutes.

HOME — H½

(PG) Animated movie featuring the voices of Jim Parsons and Rihanna, about Oh, a lovable misfit from another planet, who lands on Earth and finds himself on the run from his own people. He forms an unlikely friendship with an adventurous girl named Tip who is on a quest of her own. 1 hour, 34 minutes. Only at Cinemark Movies 10, Jackson Township.

Infinitely Polar Bear — Not rated

(R) Film views the fallout of mental illness through the bright prism of family resilience and good humor. Stars Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana. 1 hour, 28 minutes. Only at Cedar Lee, Cleveland Heights.

Inside Out — HHH½

(PG) Pixar Animation Studios has been getting some of its best reviews to date with this imaginative animated fantasy from director Pete Docter (Up) about the emotions inside a little girl’s head, all of which speak in the voices of famous people (Amy Pohler, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling and others). 1 hour, 42 minutes.

INSIDIOUS: Chapter 3 — Not rated

(PG-13) This chilling prequel, set before the haunting of the Lambert family, reveals how gifted psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) reluctantly agrees to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl (Stefanie Scott). 1 hour, 37 minutes. Cinemark Movies 10, Jackson Township.

JURASSIC WORLD — HH

(PG) Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard try to become the latest dinosaur attack survivors when the critters at a theme park run loose in the fourth installment of the popular franchise. 2 hours, 4 minutes.

LOVE & MERCY — Not rated

(PG-13) An unconventional portrait of Brian Wilson, the mercurial singer, songwriter and leader of the Beach Boys. 2 hours. Only at Cedar Lee, Cleveland Heights.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD — HHHH

(R) Though determined to wander the post-apocalyptic wasteland alone, Mad Max (Tom Hardy) joins Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a fugitive imperator, and her band who are all trying to escape a savage warlord. 2 hours. Cinemark Movies 10, Jackson Township.

(PG) A Marine Corps war dog comes to live with the family of the soldier who died serving with him in Afghanistan, bonding with the soldier’s teen brother. 1 hour, 51 minutes. Only at Regal Medina Stadium 16, Medina.

ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL —HHH½

(PG-13) A high school misfit befriends a girl who has just been diagnosed with leukemia. 1 hour, 45 minutes. Only at Cinemark Movies 10, Jackson Township.

MINIONS — HH½

(PG) The capsule-shaped creatures known as Minions search for a new evil mastermind to follow in this spinoff of the Despicable Me animated films. With the voices of Sandra Bullock and Jon Hamm. In 3-D in some theaters. 1 hour, 31 minutes.

MR. HOLMES — HHH

(PG) Long-retired and near the end of his life, Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen) grapples with an unreliable memory and must rely on his housekeeper’s son as he revisits the still-unsolved case that led to his retirement. 1 hour, 45 minutes.

Paper Towns — Not rated

(PG-13) A young man (Nat Wolff) enlists the help of his friends to find a girl (Cara Delevingne) who has gone missing in this latest adaptation of a novel by John Green (The Fault in Our Stars). 1 hour, 49 minutes.

PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2 — H

(PG) A mall security guard heads to a convention in Las Vegas with his college-bound daughter and stumbles upon a heist. With Kevin James, Raini Rodriguez and Neal McDonough. 1 hour, 34 minutes. Only at Cinemark Movies 10, Jackson Township.

PITCH PERFECT 2 — HHH

(PG-13) The Barden Bellas enter an international a cappella competition which no American team has ever won. Directed by Elizabeth Banks. Stars Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson. 1 hour, 55 minutes. Only at Cinemark Movies 10, Jackson Township.

PIXELS — Not rated

(PG-13) Adam Sandler, Brian Cox, Kevin James and Peter Dinklage defend Earth from an invasion by aliens, who have taken the form of 1980s video games such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders. 1 hour, 45 minutes.

SELF/LESS — H

(PG-13) A wealthy man dying of cancer undergoes a radical medical procedure to transfer his consciousness into a healthy young body, but all is not as it seems when he digs into the origin of his new frame. With Ryan Reynolds, Natalie Martinez and Ben Kingsley. 1 hour, 57 minutes. Only at Cinemark Movies 10, Jackson Township.

SOUTHPAW — HH½

(R) A super-ripped Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a brutal boxing champion who must overcome a tremendous setback in his personal life. 2 hours, 3 minutes.

SPY — HH½

(R) A desk-bound CIA analyst (Melissa McCarthy) volunteers to go undercover to infiltrate the world of a deadly arms dealer and prevent a global disaster. 1 hour, 55 minutes.

TED 2 —H½

(R) The sentient stuffed bear and his wife decide to try adoption, but a state authority asks whether or not he should be afforded the rights of a human, setting Ted and best friend John off on a crusade. 1 hour, 55 minutes.

TERMINATOR GENISYS — H½

(PG-13) Leading humankind’s war against Skynet, John Connor sends his lieutenant back in time to save his mother — who, in a twist on the original mythology, has been raised from childhood by a T-800 cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger). 2 hours, 6 minutes.

TESTAMENT OF YOUTH — Not rated

(PG-13) During World War I, a young English woman named Vera Brittain, postpones her studies at Oxford University to serve as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in London and abroad. After the war, she returns to Oxford to read history and later becomes a writer, feminist and pacifist. 2 hours, 9 minutes. Only at Cedar Lee, Cleveland Heights.

TOMORROWLAND — HH½

(PG) The latest feature film based on a Walt Disney theme park attraction looks much more ambitious than usual. Brad Bird (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Incredibles) directs George Clooney as a genius inventor who teams up with a brainiac teen to do something that, judging by the enigmatic trailers, may have to do with time travel. 2 hours, 10 minutes. Only at Cinemark Movies 10, Jackson Township.

TRAINWRECK — HHH

(R) After becoming a star through her popular TV skit show, Amy Schumer ventures into film with this comedy (directed by Knocked Up’s Judd Apatow) about a woman afraid of commitment who is trying to find an excuse not to date a nice guy (Bill Hader). With LeBron James. 2 hours, 4 minutes.

THE VATICAN TAPES — Not rated

(PG-13) The ultimate battle between good and evil. Angela Holmes is an ordinary 27-year-old until she begins to have a devastating effect on anyone close, causing serious injury and death. 1 hour, 28 minutes. Only at Valley View 24, Valley View.

Build It — Through Sept. 13 at Akron Art Museum, 1 S. High St. Also, Staged through Sept. 27; Proof: Photographs From the Collection through Oct. 25. Inside|Out installations in Akron neighborhoods and Cuyahoga Falls through the fall. 330-376-9185 or www.akronartmuseum.org.

Lake County Creative Artists Association — Reception 1-3 p.m. Sunday. Show will be on exhibit through Sept. 11 at the Gallery at Lakeland Community College, 7700 Clocktower Drive, Kirtland. 440-525-7029.

]]>1.611902Wed, 29 Jul 2015 22:40:45 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/movies/24-hours-of-harry-potter-movies-free-teen-expo-in-akron-corn-corn-and-more-corn-in-kent-1.611898?localLinksEnabled=false
Twenty-four hours of Harry Potter movies — for free! That’s what Fieldcrest Estate in North Canton is offering in celebration of the boy wizard’s 35th birthday. Doors will open at 6 p.m. Friday at the lodge at 1346 Easthill St. SE (55th Street) for a chronological showing of all the Potter films starting at 7 with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Children 13 and under must be accompanied by a chaperone. Meals, snacks, butterbeer and more will be for sale throughout the event as will wizarding supplies at the gift shop. Inflated pools (minus the water) will be available for rent. No outside food or drink will be permitted. Call Janet at 330-996-2222 for details.

America’s Got Talent finalist Quintavious Johnson will perform at the Akron Peacemakers’ ninth annual Teen Expo from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Thursdayat Lock 3 in downtown Akron. The event put on by the youth volunteer group is open to all teens and will include dancing, singing and other performances by local teens, sports activities, a free photo booth, airbrush tattoos and more. Local organization representatives will be on hand with information about education, health, safety and volunteer opportunities. Find information at www.AkronPeaceMakers.org or call Billy Soule at 330-375-2660 or Willa Keith at 330-375-2712.

For a corny good time, check out the Kent Lions Club’s Sweet Corn Festival from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Beckwith Orchard, 1617 Lake Rockwell Road, Kent. In addition to corn, there will be carnival games, pony and trolley rides, vendors, face-painting, live music and more. Proceeds will fund the Lions Club’s sight preservation projects. Free admission and parking. Vendors spaces available through Saturday. Call Fran at 330-678-4012. More info about the event at www.kentlionsclub.org.

Bob Milne, piano — 7 p.m. Saturday, Dover Congregational UCC Church, 2239 Dover Center Road, Westlake. Ragtime and boogie-woogie played by a pianist who has been named a National Treasure by the Library of Congress. Freewill offering.

]]>1.611897Wed, 29 Jul 2015 22:40:39 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/arts/art-notes-august-artwalk-new-installation-at-museum-downtown-dusk-1.611894?localLinksEnabled=false
The next Akron Artwalk is 5-10 p.m. Saturday, in galleries and venues in the Northside District, North High Street, and East and West Market Streets.

The city of Akron’s free trolley service runs the entire route from 5 to 10 p.m. with venues opening their doors between 5 and 6 p.m.

Climate change art

Charles Beneke: Specter opens Saturday at the Akron Art Museum, 1 S. High St., and will be on view through Jan. 3. Beneke’s work comments on climate change by reminding us of our love of excess and its impact.

Beneke is a printmaker and installation artist, as well as a professor and printmaking area coordinator at the University of Akron’s Mary Schiller Myers School of Art. See images of the installation in progress and more information at http://charlesbeneke.com.

Also at the museum, the Mostly Blues Band with Peggy Coyle performs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Downtown@Dusk. You can grab a cold beer and food from the iQcafe, and since it’s Free Thursday, you can take a stroll around the galleries for free. In the event of rain, Downtown@Dusk will be held in the museum lobby.

A reception will be held from 4-7 p.m. Wednesday at the Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation Gallery, 10 W. Streetsboro St., Hudson, for Expressions of Nature, original artwork by Hudson Society of Artists.

The exhibit will be on view through Sept. 16, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday except major holidays. For more information call 330-655-1366 or email inquiry@mcmfdn.org.

Plein Air deadline

Saturday is the last day to get up three entries for the early bird discount of $20 in the 2015 Cuyahoga Valley Plein Air Competition, set for Aug. 6-8 at the Cuyahoga Valley Art Center, 2131 Front St., Cuyahoga Falls. It’s $30 to register later.

Registered artists may have up to 10 surfaces stamped to paint during the three-day competition. Up to three paintings may be entered by delivering to CVAC between 11 a.m. and noon Aug. 9. Awards will be presented at a 2-3 p.m. reception at CVAC that day. Sally Heston will be juror.

For more information call 330-928-8092 or check out CVAC’s Facebook page.

Dorothy Shinn writes about art and architecture for the Akron Beacon Journal. Send information to her at the Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640 or dtgshinn@att.net.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park Stanford House Campsites — Five hike-in and bike-in campsites for distance hikers and bicyclists using the nearby Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath and Buckeye trails. Drive-up use is not permitted. Available through Oct. 31, 6093 Stanford Road, Peninsula. $25, $20 per night for conservancy members. For reservations, call 330-657-2909, ext. 119.

Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad — Running Wednesdays-Sundays through October. The $18 coach seating ticket acts as an all-day pass, riders can get off and back on any CVSR scheduled train that day. For more information, go to www.cvsr.com.

Five Oaks Mansion Tours — 2 and 3 p.m. every Sunday through Aug 23 at Five Oaks Mansion, 210 Fourth St. NE, Massillon. Guided tours will be offered for $6 adults and $3 students. For more information, call Gary Martzolf at 330-479-1854 or go to www.five-oaks.org.

Gervasi Vineyard Cruise-In — 5-8 p.m. Wednesdays through Sept. 30 at Gervasi Vineyard, 1700 55th St. NE, Canton. Includes door prizes, 50/50 drawings, fan favorite prize, free admission. There will be live music at two locations. For more information, go to www.gervasivineyard.com.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Youth Fishing Ponds — Open to anglers 15 and under through Sept. 7. The Youth Fishing Area is at 912 Portage Lakes Drive in Akron. Hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday and Labor Day. The ponds will be open on July 4. For more information, call 330-644-2293 or go to www.wildohio.gov.

The Peninsula Flea — An upscale flea market will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the first Saturday of the month through October at the Boston Township Hall, 1775 Main St., Peninsula. Local artists, craftsmen and collectors will assemble each month to offer one of a kind treasures. For more information, go to www.facebook.com/the peninsulaflea.

Portage Lakes Cruises — Thursdays in August: Single Mingle – Come alone or bring friends – leave with a whole new group of friends. Ride for a couple of hours listening to music and eating. Each week we’ll stop by a local pub for their specials – Tacos at Upper Deck, wings at On Tap at the Harbor, Burgers at Howie’s – whatever sounds good to the group. Seating is limited, so call ahead to reserve a seat: 330-760-0270. Cost: $20 per person plus cost of food and drink. Weather permitting. For more information, go to www.portage lakescruises.com.

St. Helena III Canal Boat Rides — 1 and 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays at 125 Tuscarawas St., Canal Fulton. The Heritage House and Olde Canal Days Museum will be open during the season from noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Canal boat rides are $8, $7 for seniors 60 and over, $5 for children 6-13, free for children 5 and under. Tickets available on site, by phone at 330-854-6835 and at www.cityofcanalfulton-oh.gov.

Water Works Family Aquatic Center — 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Aug. 18, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 22-23, weather permitting, at 2025 Munroe Falls Ave., Cuyahoga Falls. Zero depth pool for young swimmers; drop slides and water slides for older kids. Inner tubes available for rides down lazy river and cabanas can be rented. Daily rates: $12, $8 for seniors 60 plus and children 3-12; $7, $5 for residents with proof of residency. Free for all children 2 and under. 330-971-8433 or 330-971-8299.

]]>1.611891Wed, 29 Jul 2015 22:40:28 +0000http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/food/take-a-bite-out-of-speed-dating-at-acme-sip-wine-at-gervasi-vineyards-see-peter-pan-and-tinkerbell-at-weathervane-1.611888?localLinksEnabled=false
Have a glass of wine and celebrate summer at Gervasi Vineyards’ (1700 55th St. NE, Canton) weekly car cruise-in from 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Sept. 30. Showcase your vehicle or take a gander at others. There are door prizes, 50/50 drawings, live music, three restaurants and free admission.

Speed dating with a bite. Singles, 21 and older, can eat and drink and mingle at Love at First Bite at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Acme Fresh Market, 3875 Massillon Road, Green. Participants will rank appetizer stations based on their preferences (“Black Tie Affair,” “Hometown Pub,” “Veggie Lover” and “Foodie Fusion”) and then be grouped with others with similar tastes. Tickets are $10 per person and include four appetizer stations and four drink tickets. Get tickets at the customer service counter or call 330-899-0526.

Take the family out to eat, then go see high-flying adventure at Weathervane Playhouse’s production Peter Pan. Tinkerbell, the Darling children, Peter and the music will soar at performances through Aug. 16 at 7:30 p.m. Fridays, 2:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; 12:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays through Aug. 16 at the Akron theater at 1301 Weathervane Lane. Tickets are $18, $16 teens and children. 330-836-2626, www.weathervaneplayhouse.com.

]]>1.611888Wed, 29 Jul 2015 22:40:18 +0000http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/pop-music/family-friendly-can-can-at-the-ohio-light-opera-pro-golfers-randy-velez-and-more-1.611889?localLinksEnabled=false
Add a bit of high culture to your summer with Ohio Light Opera performances now through Wednesday at the College of Wooster’s Freedlander Theatre, 329 E. University St. The shows: Gilbert & Sullivan’s Yeomen of the Guard at 2 p.m. Thursday, Saturday and Wednesday; Franz Lehár’s Friederike at 7:30 p.m. Thursday; George and Ira Gershwin’s Oh, Kay! at 2 p.m. Friday; Cole Porter’s Can-Can at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $48 or $52 depending on the show, $20 for students, $10 for children. Information: 330-263-2345 or OhioLightOpera.org.

Are you ready to see pro golfers in our backyard? The game’s best players will be at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Akron’s Firestone Country ClubWednesday through Aug. 9. Tickets, available for a range of prices, are on sale at worldgolfchampionships.com or by calling 844-868-7465. An unlimited number of youths 18 and younger are admitted free with a ticketed adult.

Prepare to be mesmerized by singer Randy Velez’s performance at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Lions Lincoln Theatre, 156 Lincoln Way E., Massillon. Velez is known for his ability to capture the essence of musical artists from the Righteous Brothers to Elvis. Tickets for the Friday Nights Live show are $10 and can be purchased at the door or in advance at http://lionslincolntheatre.com or by calling 330-309-1900.

Scoot on over to the 42nd annual Zoar Harvest Festival that will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday in the historical village. Be on the lookout for a juried artisan showcase featuring folk art, furniture and fine arts for sale and handcrafting demonstrations; antique sales by more than 60 dealers; tours, a car show and more. During the free speaker series, David Walker will portray Jefferson Davis and talk about the Civil War at 1 and 2 p.m. Saturday. Admission to all tents, events, museum buildings, etc. is $8, free for children 12 and under. It’s free for visitors who want to attend the festival without entering the tents or buildings. Information: 330-874-3011, www.historiczoarvillage.com.

Widows and Widowers Starting Over Socially — 1 p.m. Tuesday at Geisen Haus, 6955 Promway Ave. NW, North Canton. Reservations are required and diners pay for their own meals. Call Jackie at 330-802-5648 or Sue at 330-499-8727.